As demands on today's networks grow, the ability of communication service providers (CSPs) to plan and manage radio access network (RAN) capacity, and to deliver superior service to customers, is being severely challenged. A few technologies have been recently introduced in order to help CSPs optimize available RAN capacity and to prevent RAN congestion as much as possible.
One of these technologies is SON (Self-Optimized Network) that has a few functions that automate the ongoing activities of RAN sectors (e.g. automatic neighboring configuration, capacity optimization, on demand load balancing, on demand self-configuration, etc.).
One of these SON functions is MLB (Mobile Load Balancing). While MLB has been working successfully helping to prevent RAN congestion, it lacks one essential component. This component is subscriber awareness.
There is thus a need for addressing these and/or other issues associated with the prior art.